Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/850

* LAOMEDQN. 768 LAOS. Priam, who had alone protested against his father's acts, upon the throne. LAON, UiN. A fortress and the capital of the Beparlmeut of Aisne, l-'rance, situated on an iso- lated hill, 87 miles northeast of I'aris by rail (Map: France, K 2). It has numerous ancient buildings and three gates belonging to its thir- Uinthccnlury fortilicatious. The Cathedral of Notre Dame is a line tiothic edilice. begun in the middle of the twelfth century and linished in 122j. It is surmounted with numerous towers, some of them untiiii--lied, and the two Hanking the facade being adorned with huge oxen, said to conuucmorate the animals used in the trans- portation of the stone for the building. Another noteworthy church is that of Saint Martin (twelfth century) in Transition style. The Palais de Justice occupies the thirteenth-cen- tury episco])al ])alace, and the prefecture is housed in the former Abbey of Saint Jean (twelfth century). The educational institutions comprise a lyci'*. a communal college, a normal school, a fine library rich in MSS. and auto- graphs, a museum of local antiquities, and a theatre. Laon manufactures linen and other tex- tiles and metal products. It is noted for its fruits and vegetables. Population, in 1891, 14.120; in 1!)01. l.").4.'!4. Laon is first mentioned as Laudunum in the fifth century. It was forti- fied by the Itcjmans and eventually attained great importance in the kingdom of the Franks; in the tenth century it was the residence of the Car- olingian kings. During the twelfth and thir- teenth centuries the place sulTered consider- ably in the struggles with its bishops. The bishopric of Laon, founded at the beginning of the sixth centuiy, was abolished in 17S9. In modern times Laon is associated with the defeat of the French under Napoleon by the Germans under Bliioher in 1814. In 1870 Laon capitu- lated to the Germans, but the entrance of the conquering army into the town was marked by the blowing up of the powder-magazine by a French private, with the result that over 500 people were killed and wounded and the town was considerably damaged. LAOS, lii'os. A region in the northern part of Siam. comprisinc the Middle Mekong District, ex- tending from about 1.3° to 2.3° latitide X. Its boundaries are not well defined, and its total area is estimated at about 110.000 square miles. Its political status has been determined by the agree- ments of lSi13 and 1800. By the first. France obtained possession of the portion east of the Mekong, which now forms a part of French Indo- China: while by the second agreement between France and England, the portion west of the Mekong has been divided into two parts, of which the eastern, belonging to the basin of the Mekong, has been declared within the French sphere of inlluence. and the western part, around the headstreams of the ISIenam. has lieen recognized within the British sphere. The country has been only slightly explored, and its resources are still mknown. It is covered largely with forests of valuable woods, and is believed to contain con- siderable mineral wealth. The climate is not imhealthful during the dry season, which lasts from the niidille of October to the end of April, but is very hot and oppressive during the rainy season, when the mean temperature is aboit 0.5°. The natives raise rice. corn, tobacco, cotton, and tea. They also produce mats and other objects of Sparta grass. There are a French resident and a number of French commissioners in the eastern part. The population is estimated at 2.000,000, chielly Laos. LAOS, la'6z, or LAOTIANS. One of the chief groups of the Thai stock, which includes the Shans, Thos-Jluong, Siamese, Burmese, etc. They inhabit the northern parts of Farther India, from Tongking to Assam, but the Laos country belongs chielly to Siam and French Indo- china, only a few tribes still preserving their independence. The physical characters of the Laotians are: Medium (.sometimes quite low) stature, except in the most favorable dis- tricts; somewhat brachycephalie head-form; hair black, still", and rarely curly, beard scanty; skin among the general population tawny, but among the higher classes lighter and often abnost white. The upland Laotians are fairer- skinned than the people of the lowlands. Certain customs and practices, such as the North Laotian tattooing with needles, bodily or- namentation, etc.. have been regarded as in- dicative of Malayan affinities. The character of the primitive Laotians is generally considered as of a higher order than that of many of their more civilized neigld)ors. They arc. at their best, of a pleasanter disposition, franker, and more accessible than many of the other peoples of Farther India, and combine the qualities of good subjects with a never-extinct longing for indc- pen<lence. In occupation the Laotians are agri- culturists, cultivating rice and the nuilberry-tree, and raising silkwoiuis; in part sbejiherds and hunters. Some of the settled and more civilized Laotians make the wilder tril)es of their environ- ment grow rice and other foods for them. Others are expert cutters of teak and other timber. Be- ing on the route of travel between China and Farther India of the south, they have had some- thing to do with the development of trade and conuiicrcc in that region, although they are not credited with any keen commercial sense. Some of the Laotians are celebrated for their met;il- work. Excepting nuisic. the fine arts seem not to be largely cultivated, but there is among them a consideral)le indigenous as well as borrowed folk-literature. Polygamy is rare with the masses of the people, and the position of woman is not at all low with some of the tribes ; for, if she does work hard, she is the head of the hou.sehold. Those who are not still 'heathen' have acce|>ted Buddhism in some form or other, but among the lower and ignorant classes ancestor-worship, fetishism, etc., survive. From their neighbors, the Khmers, they have borrowed some superstitious beliefs, as the werewolf and the like. Some of the Lao- tians have a special form of writing, probably of Indian origin. With the Shans the Laotians shared in the earlier Thai' civilizations of this part of Farther India, some of which were in their prime in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fif- teenth centuries. A few of the Laos 'States' still exist in a semi-independent condition. Consult: Bock, Temples and ElephanlK (London, 1884) ; Colquhoun, Arrwng the Shuns (London. 1885) ; Taupin. "Voyage d'cxploration et d'etudes an Laos." in the liullrlin dr In Sncivte Xortnatule de Geoqraphie for 1800; Aymonier, Voyage dans le Laos (Paris. 1897) ; Leffevre, Vn voyage au Laos (Paris, 1898).